UNITED NATIONS, Feb 3 (APP): More than 1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of hearing loss due to the unsafe use of personal audio devices such as smartphones and exposure to damaging levels of sound, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to devote International Ear Care Day tomorrow to “Making Listening Safe”.

Resolution of Gaza crisis key to achieving Mideast peace: UN envoy -

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (APP): Peace in the Middle East hinges on resolving the ongoing crisis in Gaza, where reconstruction efforts are faltering and the blockade continues, the U.N.’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Robert Serry, said Monday.

SANDAI CITY (Japan) March 2 (APP): The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Editor of Kahoku Shimpo Publishing Takada Shinichi said that Japanese media was enjoying complete freedom.

Obama to host Afghan president on March 24 -

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (APP): President Barack Obama will host Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Officer Abdullah, and key members of their unity government for meetings and a working lunch at the White House on March 24.

Women must be at the decision-making table at all levels: UN chief -

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 (APP): The world must unite to end violence and discrimination against women and girls, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged at a high-level event in Chile on women and decision-making Friday, citing that progress over the past two decades has been made slow and uneven.

ISLAMABAD,
March 3 (APP): Olympian Mohammad Karim of Pakistan has beaten his
Indian opponent Mohammad Arif in the giant slalom event of Asian Alpine
Ski Championship 2015, being held in Yongpyong, South Korea.

ISLAMABAD, Jul 11 (APP): Federal Minister for Population Welfare Firdous Aashiq Awan said on Sunday that the government is taking serious measures to control population growth in the country.Talking to a private news channel, she suggested that everyone should play its due role about the issue.

She said, now concerted efforts
would be made to meet the target as all stakeholders including
religious community have been taken on-board.Firdous urged on media and civil society to create awareness among the people through different campaigns.After constant efforts of long
years, the country has reached on fertility rate of 4 percent and
population growth rate is currently 2.2 percent which is highest in our
region, she informed. She elaborated that within one
minute, eight babies are adding in our population which makes 3.5
million population in one year, equivalent to the population of
‘Faisalabad’.“We should keep in mind that the
country has highest mothers mortality rate with highest infants
mortality rates in the region as well as in the world,” she said. Under this scenario, the policies
and planning in this regard have become a challenge that how heavy
population growth can be curtailed, she said adding population policies
of the past, to some extent, remained successful to static the
population growth rate but could not drastically brought down the heavy
population growth. To a question she said, in the
country there is no match between economic growth rate and population
growth rate. The secret of development of a country is in the balance
of the two growth rates, she said.When asked why the past policies
could not meet the target she said, whenever the population policy was
formulated, it was confronted by religious community and it was termed
as an initiative against Islam.“After taking charge as Federal
Population Minister I worked to know the root cause and hurdle that why
we are unable to implement our own policies which were practical. I
found communication gap between the policy makers and religious
community as what was being said was not being perceived properly.”
There was misperception that this is something contradictory against
Islam, she added.“We started our earnest efforts to engage religious community and worked for a partnership with them.” At mega level, religious seminars
were held in all four provinces of the country in which ulema belonging
to all schools of thought were invited.The ulema gave suggestions with parameters based on Islamic philosophy and Islamic values to formulate a new population policy.Under new population policy
formulated after consultation with religion community ‘Vision 2020’,
religious leaders are being empowered. For the first time, ‘Imam
Masjid’ is being made a partner in population welfare programmes. He
would act as a social mobilizer, she added.Prime Minister has declared 2011 as population year under thisinitiative, the issue will be focused during the whole year, the Minister said.